Fish “Kofte” Meatballs

Contributed by friend of Fin + Forage Giray "Pumpkin" Armağan

 
Giray cooking
 

Köfte means meatballs in Turkish. Giray grew up spearfishing in Turkey and is a huge proponent of enjoying the ocean.  This was the dish he prepared at the 2019 Catch & Cook Competition, on a jet boil of all things. We sure got some epic photos of him that really capture the nature of Catch and Cook and what the competition was really all about: Community, Adventure and Food!

Ingredients:

  • Cilantro

  • Dill

  • Olive Oil

  • Salt

  • Bread Crumbs

  • Butter

  • Whole Fish

  • Onion

  • Garlic

  • Mozzarella

  • Egg

  • Flour

  • Parsley

Preperation

Giray Chopping

Fillet and debone the rockfish. Then boil the head and the bony parts of fillet for a minute in order to pull the meat out easily and discard the bones. Retain the liver of the fish. Make sure you take all the meat from the head, not just the cheeks. Place all the meat taken from the fish on a cutting board and using a mezzaluna chopper, go over them until the consistency is like ground beef. The ground fish now goes into a large bowl. Grate an onion and squeeze the juice out of it. As well, grate a clove of garlic and some mozzarella cheese. Onion’s pulp and the grated garlic as well as 3 to 4 table spoons of cheese should also go into the bowl. One egg and one egg white is added onto the mix. In addition, 2 table spoons of flour is added into the mix. Chop parsley, cilantro and dills using the mezzaluna chopper and toss them into the bowl as well. A dab of salt also goes into the mix at this point. Now knead the mix until you reach a firm consistency, and until all the ingredients have been uniformly distributed. Get your hands oily with some olive oil, and start scooping a handful of the fish mix at a time to form balls or round cakes. On the side, have another bowl with bread crumbs, but fine crumbs, not coarse. Toss the fish balls into the bowl with bread crumbs and roll and shake them in the bowl. Now you should have the fish cakes coated with bread crumbs and ready to fry. Heat the pan. 2 table spoons of butter goes into the pan. Once melted, some olive oil is also added. When the pan is hot enough, start laying the fish balls and cook about 2 mins on each side.

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Rockfish and Puff Pastry

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